It's January - time to take a breath?

BY DAN GALLIGAN,
CEO, CANEGROWERS

In reality the gap between Christmas and New Year is just a week. Yet almost everyone in the economy gallops towards the end of the year in a flurry to get everything done before this artificial deadline looms.

The leveller in our need to complete tasks based on the calendar is the weather. Mother nature couldn’t care less what the calendar says, and the end of 2023 proved that in spades. When we saw a very early in the season cyclone cause not the usual mass destruction through wind but instead via the trailing devastating and relentless rainfall that smashed communities and industries across far north Queensland.

For many this could feel like the last straw as we see the obvious strain on the faces of people who have been busting their guts working their way out of the COVID-led downturn only to have it all washed away.

Last year was extraordinary for our industry. Despite record high prices, strong trade results in premium markets like the UK and USA and continued support in our traditional ports of South East Asia, we were hampered by high input prices, workforce shortages and competition for land and resources from other agricultural commodities and renewable energy developments.

So how does it feel to use a short couple of days to take a breath in January and look ahead to 2024. Will things be different? The only safe answer is yes.

Things will be different we just don’t know how. We can’t forecast the challenges ahead like we forecast the weather. We can however plan for and build our capacity to respond to challenges and deliver on opportunities. We need to do both.

As there was last year but perhaps even more so this year, I see opportunities. The local government and state elections for 2024 provide an atmosphere for new horizons for our industry and communities. Incoming political leaders will need to be courageous to make this a reality. Councillors looking to take a seat in local governments need to consider

what they will do to prioritise agricultural land and practices in planning decisions, how they will maintain a good budget but smooth out the impacts of rates decisions and what proactive role can they play to coordinate and underpin biosecurity responses.

The Queensland Government has an even greater chance of doing great things for the future of our industry. Policies around sustainable aviation fuel, land use planning, water and energy prices sit well within their sphere of influence.

This will be a big year and issues will come at the industry that cannot be predicted. All things can be managed with the right focus on collaboration and taking a long term view.

We are industry with a bright future, it will not be delivered with a panicked run to the finish line but instead we need measured, calculated speed, bringing people along with us and gathering those around that see a vision for a future that we can all share in.